Mechanism for automatically operating steam-injectors.



J, D. PATRICK MECHANISM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING STEAM INJEQTORS.

APPLICATION YILED APR 20. 1914v Patented July 28, 191%.

31 u uantoz UNITED STATES JASPER n. PATRICK, or MONTGOMERY,

ALABAMA, ASSIGN OR OF ONE-THIRD TO ALEXANDER FREDERICK WH ITING, OFMONTGOMERY, ALABAMA MECHANISM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATINGSTEAM-INJECTORS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 28,1914a Application filed Apr1l20, 1914. Serial No.833,158.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J ASPBR D. PATRICK, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Montgomery, in the county ofMontgomery and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Mechanism for Automatically Operating Steam- Injeetors,of which the following is a specification.

It is theprimary object ofthis invention to provide mechanism which willrender steam injectors automatically operative to as complete-a degreeas they are operated manually. To do this, itis not only necessary thatautomatic means be provided to take care ofthe normal or ordinaryoperations, but that means be also provided to perform automaticallycertain emergency operations. Apparatus which operates an injector anddoes not take care of certain emergencies which are likely to arise atany .time is ineffective from a practical stand point because it has tobe supplemented by manual operation and therefore in many cases might aswell not be provided.

My invention, as here shown, is automatic in the true sense in thatit'req'uires no supplemental manual operation, and therefore need not bewatched. In other words, When the injector is once set, it is thoroughlycapable of taking care of itself.

certain novel mechanism for operating irrespective of emergencyoperations.

My invention furthermore provides mech anism which is universal incharacter in that it may be readily applied to any of the well knowninjectors.

In order to more fully describe my said invention, reference will be hadto the ac- 'My inven -'on, however, embodiefi companying drawings in'which,

Figure 1, illustrates part-l in section and in elevation one specificembodiment of my said invention, as applied to a Monitor steam injector,and Fig. 2, is a fragmentary detail section, on a larger scale than Fig.1,

showing the connection from the priming by-pass .to the jet tube. I

In carrying out my invention in the form shown, I provide, among otherparts, a float chamber comprising a cylindrical tank 1 attached-to theboiler-2 by pipes 3 and 4, which pipes are provided respectively withhand 0 erated cut oil valves 5 and 6. Pipes 3 and 4. aflord acommunication from njectors opening into said tank near its top andbottom as shown. Steam is supplied tothe tank 1 from the boiler throughpipe 3, and water through pipe 4, thus maintaining the same pressure andwater level in the tank as in the boiler.

'Located in tank 1 is a float 7, consisting preferably of a thin hollowcopper sphere slightly less in diameter than the inner diameter of tank1, Adjustabl attached to this float as, for example, by eing screwedthereto, is a stem 8 which passes upward through and makes a sliding fitwith an opening in a'cap 9, adapted to screw on and off the upper end ofthe tank and toact as a closure therefor. The opening in cap 9 throughwhich stem 8' passes is provided with a packing nut 10 to prevent theescape of steam from the float tank 1. At the bottom of the float tankis a drain cock 11 for drawing water from the tank. .Float stem'8 isconnected at its upper end to a lever 12 fulcrumed as at 13in anydesired way on the boiler. Lever 12 connects on -the opposite side ofits fulcrum from its float 's'tem,

which isadapted to be moved by steam from pipe 18 against thecompression ofa spring 21, as hereinafter more particularly described.Piston 20 is provided with a piston rod 22, which connects with the.operating arm 23 of a'priming valve 24 connected in a by-pass steam pipe25. The function of this by-pass pipe is to convey steam from the mainsteam feed pipe 26 to the jet tube 27 of the injector 28, for thepurpose of priming it, the valve in the present case supplanting thehand operated priming valve. The particular form of injector shown is aMonitor injector, a well known. form a steam injector, the constructionof which need not here be described in detail. In the constructionshown, the hand operated priming valve together with the jet valvebonnet and nut are removed, and a nut 25) carrying a nozzle 30 isscrewed into the opening in the injector casing'in the place of saidbonnet and nut the nozzle 30 being provided with a beveled head 31adapted to it is screwed,thereby making a steam tight passage from theby-pass pipe to the jet tube 27. (See-Fig. 2.)

Rod 15 is operatively connected to an arm 33 of a valve 34, connected ina steam supply pipe 35, leading from the boiler to a -.cylinder 36, inwhich cylinder is located a ',,piston 37 operative by steam from pipe 35against the compressiono-f a spring 38. Piston 37 is provided with apiston rod 39, which is flexibly connected to the operating arm 40 of avalve 41, connected 1n the main steam feed pipe 26, leading from theboiler to the injector. The steam from cylinder 19 is exhausted througha pipe 42, in which is connected a valve 43,. This valve is-operatedautomatically from piston rod 39, and for this purpose there may beprovided any .suitable o erative' connection between said, valve anpiston rod, comprising, in the case shown, a bell crank lever 44, one ofthe'arms of which extends between two pins 45 on said piston rod, whilethe other arm is 'fleiribly connected through link 46 to the operatingarm 47 of valve 43. i

The cylinder 36 is provided with two exhausts, one for the normaloperation of the injector, and the other for emergency purposes.Thenormal exhaust from cylinder 36takes place through a pipe 48, and iscontrolled by a' va-ve 49 connected in said 1 e, o iit', and for thispurpose is operatively connected through arm 50 t0 the rod 15.

Before takingup any ofthe emergency mechanism, I shall first describebriefly the normal operation of the apparatus.

In the drawing the various parts are shown in the positions which theyoccupy when the injector, is not in operation.

The main steam feed valve or steam ram of the injector, manuallyoperated by handle 51, is left open and the water valve or lazy, cock,manually operated by handle 52, is s t to the desired point an leftopen, and th steam' heater cock 1s -al so left open, As the water in theboiler diminishes,

float 7 will descend, and in doing so rotates lever 12 on'its fulcrumwhich in turn pulls, rods 14 and 15 upward,'causing them to operatevalves 17 and 34 ina direction toopen them. These valves are so timedthat when the water in the boiler reaches the-lower gage level," valve17 will open and admit steam to the cylinder 19. The steam in thiscylinder forces pistdn 20 against the compression of spring 21, thusoperating through piston rod '22 the arm 23 of the valve 24 in. suclfadirection as to open the same to prime the injector. At the proper timeafter the priming operation has commenced, valve 3st will open.admitting" steam to cylinder 36, which forces its piston against, thecompression of spring 38. Said piston in th s moving operates throughits piston rod connection to open the main steam feed valve 41,thus-admitting the full force of the steam from the feed pipe to the'injector. \Vhen this takes place, the prim ing operation isautomatically stopped by the opening of exhaust valve 13 of cylinder 19through its operative connection with piston rod 39. The steam incylinder 19 will, therefore, exhaust through pipe &2, releasin thepressure against-spring 21, which then orces piston 20 down, therebyoperat in primer valve handle 23 to close the priming valve. Theihjector now operates to deliver water through its delivery outlet 54 tothe boiler from the feed pipe 55' which, in the case of a locomotive,leads from the tender. As the water rises in the boiler, float 7 willrise, and .by the time it reaches the second gage level, valves 17 and34 will haveboth closed. Rod 15, in moving downward tdelose valve 34,opens ex; haust valve 49, thus permitting steam to exhaust from cylinderWhen this takes place, spring 38, acting through piston 37 and pistonrod 39, will close steam supply jector. Valves 34 and 49 are so set withrespect to eachother, that when one opens the other. closes, and viceversa.

The timing of -valves 17 and 34 is a very simple matter, It is known ordetermined This.,.valve {L'Qis operated from the about how long it'takes a given injector to prime, and these valves are set accordingly.-so thatvalve 34 is opened at the proper time after the valve 17 hasopened. -1The foregoing is the normal operation of the injector.Reference will now be had more p ticularly to the parts which aredesigned to perform certain emergency operations.

As here nbefore'stated, the cylinder 36 is provided, in addition to itsregular exhaust with an emergency exhaust. This emergency exhaust takesplace through a pipe 55, in which is connecteda. valve 56. having an arm57 operatively connected to fan arm of a lever 58, fulcrumed in anydesired way as at 59. The power arm of thislever is operativelyconnected through a stem 60 to a baflle plate 61 located directly underthe outlet of the overflow 62 of the injector. Bathe plate Gl is movabledownward against the compression of a spring 63, inserted between saidplate and a fixed bracket or spider 64 made fast to the inte rior of acylinder 65, which is in turn fast to the overflow nozzle 62, Cylinder65 is provided at'its bottom with an outlet 66 through which steam andwater from the overflow nozzle may pass, Lever 58 extends tl'irough aslot 67 in the side of cylinder (35,- and is vertically movabletherein.

In the water feed pipe 55 is placed a check valve 68, opening toward theinjector, and closing toward the water supply, to prevent valve 41 andstop the operation of the injector does not prime steam from blowingback into the water suply tank and cooperating, as hereinafterdescribed, with the foregoing mechanism to automatically out off thesteam supplied to the injector.

For" the purpose of describing the action of the-emergency apparatus, wewill first assumo a casewhere the priming valve has 0 ened, and thesteam supply valve 41 has a so opened, but from some properly and failsto deliver water through its delivery nozzle to the boiler. Ordinarilyinprimifi, steam and water-will pass, from the ove ow nozale 62, but not'w'ith sufiicient presiurc against bafiie plate 6.1 to overcome theaction of spring 63. If, however, the steam supply \'33l" f 41 is openedWide, and the injector at, steam will pass with considerable o'ough theoverflow nozzle 62, strik- :le plate 61 and forcing it down must; thecompression of. spring 63. The e. cut of this will be to rotate lever 58in such direction as to open emergency exhaust valve 56, thus allowingsteam to exhaust from cylinder 36, when spring 38 will force piston 37in such direction as to close valve 41. and thus shut off the steam fromthe injector, and stop its operation. Piston rod 39 in thus closingvalve 41. will also operate through hell crank lever 44 to close exhaustvalve 43of the priming cylinder and as steam is at this time flowinginto the prim ing cylinder through pipelS, the piston of the primingcylinder will be forced upward, thus opening priming valve 24, and whichcauses the injector to again prime. If this priming fails to operatecorrectly, the steam supply valve 41 is again closed automatically, andthe priming apparatus is again brought into operation. and theseoperations are repeated over and over until the injector primesproperly, if this is possible Jf accomplishment or, in ot er words, u sthere is something so radii-all v on; the injector itself that it wouldnot properly even if operated manually sometimes happens, from one causeor an other, that steam will blow back into th water supply tank througha supply pi a= 55. This happens more frequently on some injectors thanothers, and is not mentioned here asa special characteristic of theMonitor injector. but it will sometimes happen even with this injector.The proper thing to do in a case like his, and What would he done by onein oper ting an injector manually, is to cut oil the steam supply to theinjcctor, and start it over again. I accomplish this by placing in thewater feed pipe the check valve 68, which will stop the llow of steaminto the \vatcr supply tank and di ert it through the overflow nozzle,cans ing the said. steam, issuing from said noaxle,

cause "the in deliver water through its delivery to operate upon thebaflic plate 61 to automatically stop the operation of the injector, asabove described.

It will be seen from the foregoing description that I have provided amechanism for the operation of a steam injector which is, in the truesensc ot' the word, automatic. Not only does this apparatus performoperations automatically, \\'lll\ll would be per formed manually in.operating an injector, but it performs then in a similar way. Forexample, to obtain the best results. or, in other words, to be sure thatan injector will operate when its valves are opened, these valves shouldnot be opened with a jerk or too quickly. This is taken care of in myapparatus by cushioning the pistons :20 and I)? on both side lvhcn theyare moved by the steam, they more against cushions it forllcd by thesprings '23 and 38, and when they are moved by the spr ngs, they aremoved against cushions afforded by the steam on the other side of thepistons. The pistons thus more in each direction modcr atcly so as notonly to insure certain (;])0l:i-- tion of the injector, but also to savewear and tear on the mechanism.

The various valves 17, 34, :24, 41, 43. -19 and 56 may be plug valves,or of any other suitable construction which will perform the desiredfunction.

The stiffness of springs 21 and will vary according to the particularsteam pressure at which the injector must work.

The cylinders 19 and 36. and the various operating levers 12, it and 58are preferably, in the case of a locomotive, mounted upon the boiler,but I do not limit my invention to any piirticular way of supporting theparts. i

Vl'hile l have herein shown and described one specific embodiment of myintention, various modifications thereof only he made without departing:from the true spirit thereof. Also. while I have here shown my inventionas appli d to Monitor injector, it is applicable as well to many otherforms of injcctors o1'ins1.)irator.;.

The Monitor injector is shown principally for the reason that it is oneofthe most difficult. injectors to operatev automatically. Someinjectors, for example, have no priming valve. In applying my inventionto the latter kind of injector, obviously it is not necessary to providemeans for operating a priming valve, in which case the priming parts ofmy apparatus may be omitted.

What I claim is:

l. The combination with a steam injector, of automatic means to primesaid injector, aui omatic means to control the steam feed of 5 saidinjector, and means operated by the said st am feed controlling mmins toautonmt-ually stop th operation of said priming means.

3. The cc nhination with a steam injector hm Eng a p ling valve and avalve to control the steam feed to the injector, of auto main means tooperate said priming valve,

a; isnanaaic means timed to operate at a rod after the opening of saidit: operate said steam feed cat on with a steam injector feed valve, ofautomatic t valve, and means op icaliy to close said valve upon theinjector to operate after is opened by the first ment med aotonzalmmeans.

The condom-alien with a steam injector "having: a steam feed val re, offloat controlled automatic means to operate said valve, and earn icymeans operable automatically iin c r: c .ntly of said float controllingmean to clo e said valve upon the failure oi" tl tor to operate upon theopening of said valve by the float controlled mechanism,

5 The combination with a steam injector hm log a main feed valve and anoverflow outlet a float c ntrolled mechanism for automatically operatsaid feed valve, and fllij'il'lfi lli lll opt-r; from the overflowontlcr of i inj ct to vans" aid float conl ce; ilw. The mniliinstwn witha steam injector loo 3%; feed naive and overflow out-' I to saidinjector for of fluid from said can I e connected, to said bai'lhforoperation thereby, a cylinder having an emergency cvoaost controlled bysaid valve and a pt n opcratively connected to said steam lced valve,means to deliver team to a l cylinder. a valve con rolling said del v.y. and 13: n operative means coir trolling or last grain d valve. 5. l""P" coniliii itiim with a steam injector ilavi a steam feed valve offloat controlled auto ndic moans to'opcrate said valve, and emergencymeans operable upon the failure of the injector to awful; alter itsStrain feedvalve is opened. and independently of said tic-git mechanismto close: said steam feed valve and cause said lloat operated mechanismto again upon said steam feed valve 8. The combination n'ith a steaminjector, of automatic means to control the steam snpplv thereto, saidmeans comprising a cyl indcr, a piston adapted to reciprocate in said clndcr, a spring against which said adapted to move in one direction,

' llil'i' 5: a steam inlet, a normal exhaust and emergen y exhaust,valves controlling said rilfllll inlet and exhausts, float operatedmeans controlling the valves of the steam inlet and normal exhaust, andmeans operative automatically independently of the float mechanism tooperate the emergency exhaust.

S) The combination with a steam injector and boiler, of automatic meansto control the steam feed to the injector, said means comprising acylinder, :1 piston reciprocable in said piston, a spring against whichsaid piston is movable in one direction, a steam inlet openinginto saidcylinder on one side of said piston, an exhaust opening from saidcylinder on the same side of said piston, a valve controlling said steaminlet and a valve controlling said exhaust, a float tank opening to saidboiler, a float in said tank. a lever connected to said float andoperative connection between said lever and said valves, and meansoperative from the overflow of said in'ector to automatically. cut oflthe supply 0 steam to said injector.

10. The combination with a steam injector and boiler. of automatic meansto control the steam feed to the injector, said means comprising acylinder, a piston reciprocable in said piston, a spring against whichsaid piston is movable in one direction, asteam inlet opening into saidcylinder on one side of said piston, an exhaust opening from saidcylinder on the same side of said piston, a valve controlling said steaminlet and a valve controlling said exhaust, a float tank opening to saidboiler, a float in said tank, a lever connected to said float, andoperative connection between said lever and said valves.

11. The combination with a steam injector connected to a source of steamsupply and toa source of water supply and having an overflow outlet, offloat controlled automatic means to control the steam supply to saidinjector, a check valve located in the connection from the injector tothe water supply, and means operative from the overflow outlet, toautomatically cut off the supply of steamv to said injector.

12 The combination with a steam injector having a steam feed pipeconnected thereto, of a valve located in said steam feed pipe andcontrolling the delivery of steam-to said injector, a by-pass aroundsaid steam feed valve for conveying steam to said injector to prime thesame, a )rirning .valve in said by-pass, float controlled mechanismconnected to said by-pass valve to operate the same. float controlledmechanism connected to said steam feed valve to operate the same, andmechanism operated by the feed valve operating mechanism to cause thefloat controlled priming valve operating mechanism to close said bypassvalve to stop the priming operation.

13. The combination with a steam injector having a priming valve, asteam feed valve, and an overflow outlet, of a cylinder having a pistonand admission and exhaust openlogs on one-side of said piston, a springagainst which said piston is movable, opera tive connection between saidpiston and priming valve, a valve for controlling the admission of steamto said cylinder, and a valve for controlling the exhaust of steamtherefrom, a second cylinder having a piston and admission and exhaustopenings on one side of saidapiston, a spring against which said pistonis movable, operative conncction between the piston of the last namedcylinder and said steam feed valve, operative connection to control theexhaust valve of the priming valve operating cylinder from the piston ofthe feed valve operating cylinder,

float operated means to control the operation of the steam admissionvalve of the primin cylinder and the admission valve and exhaust valveof the steam feed valve operating cylinder, anemergency exhaust for saidlast named cylinder, a valve controlling go exhaust valve to open theemergency ex.

haust.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature U1 presence of two witnesses.

JASPER D. PATRICK.

\Vitnesses A. F. WRITING, PHILIP H. STERN.

